An improving environment for mergers and acquisitions is also acting as tailwind for the departing traders as they set up their own outfits, enticing big-name investors on board to help them make the leap.
Merger arbitrage funds, a subset of event-driven strategies, gained 5.7% on average through July this year, according to research firm PivotalPath. The returns are already more than they generated in each of the last three full calender years and better than the main PivotalPath Composite Index this year.
